Sometimes the world needs heroes. But in the desperation of these last days, the world will take all those it can get: heroes, blackguards, madmen, and whoever else is willing to stand against the coming darkness. Will you fight the demons or will you burn it all down and dance among the ashes? Who will you become when the world dies?

Shadow of the Demon Lord® opens a door to an imaginary world held in the grip of a cosmic destroyer. Enter a land steeped in the chaos and madness unleashed by the end times, with whole realms overrun by howling herds of beastmen, warped spirits freed from the Underworld, and unspeakable horrors stirred awaken by the Demon Lord’s imminent arrival.

A complete tabletop roleplaying game in one book, Shadow of the Demon Lord provides everything you need to create and play characters, form groups in pursuit of adventure, and tell exciting stories with your friends. As well, the book gives Game Masters all the tools they need to create adventures, over one hundred foul creatures, a detailed region of the campaign world, and extensive advice to help run the game.

As the Demon Lord’s shadow creeps across the world, it creates the chance for heroes to seize their destinies and villains to accomplish their despicable goals. As you play the game, you and your friends tell stories about thwarting the plots of twisted cultists, hunting down and destroying bizarre demons, exploring lost lands, investigating weird mysteries, and so much more.

You can deselect background layer in the file. It works, except for chapter "Running the game". I don't know why background is not disappearing there...

Tim LOctober 24, 2017 7:00 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Since the last two or three updates the resolution of graphics in the file has been dropped to an awfully compressed 100DPI that looks absolutely abysmal, pixellated and full of artifacts either zoomed in or on a high ppi screen... :( What gives? Can't imagine it would be that hard to provide both a high-res and smaller sized low-res version if the latter is absolutely needed, so any chance you could please consider doing that?

October 25, 2017 10:29 am UTC

PUBLISHER

In the works.

Tim LOctober 25, 2017 11:08 am UTC

PURCHASER

Wonderful!

Tim LNovember 07, 2017 8:38 pm UTC

PURCHASER

So the latest update claims to have increased the resolution, but in reality all colour art in the book is still at an abysmal 100DPI... Why is it seemingly so difficult to bring the resolution back to at least 150DPI for all graphics, as it was before the september 2017 update? The updated PDF continues looking awful on a high ppi screen or when zoomed in, and I find that depressingly inadequate for an electronic file that is still being sold for a non-negligible price of 17 Euros.

October 24, 2017 3:16 am UTC

PUBLISHER

The 10-23 file now works.

October 23, 2017 10:43 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

The most recent file: SotDL_Core_Final_9-20-17 has the bookmarks. Please make sure you're using that file.

Geoffrey WOctober 24, 2017 2:49 am UTC

PURCHASER

Oh good. I was confused because there's a file marked "SotDL_Core_Final_10-23-17.pdf" that doesn't work at all. it seems to be trying to pull from a D: drive. Which is, of course, impossible.

October 23, 2017 10:27 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

Sorry for missing these comments. We are working on fixing the PDF.

Matt POctober 23, 2017 11:05 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thank you!

Tim LSeptember 22, 2017 11:13 am UTC

PURCHASER

So according to my library the last update was made on 21/09, but it isn't clear what has been updated? Is it the SotDL_Core_v9-13-17-2.compressed file? Secondly, will there be an updated non-compressed version, aka better graphic quality, in the future?

Matt MSeptember 21, 2017 4:38 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I still see three previous versions of the book in my library, so my question is this; is the "compressed" version just supposed to be a smaller file size option for those with limited disk space?

Matt PSeptember 21, 2017 4:30 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I’m having the same issues. Very dark in color making it hard to read and no bookmarks to navigate the PDF

Christopher RSeptember 19, 2017 11:44 am UTC

PURCHASER

Also having issues with the updated version. It's noticeably harder to read, there is only a compressed version available, and no version without a BG. Makes reading on an ebook reader very difficult.

Federico CSeptember 16, 2017 7:52 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Besides lacking bookmarks, the new version's background is also darker and makes it more difficult to read the text.

Fernand GSeptember 15, 2017 1:04 pm UTC

PURCHASER

It looks like today's updated PDF (2017-09-15) lacks a clickable index and table of contents.

Andrew BFebruary 28, 2017 2:25 am UTC

I think this is mainly a DriveThruRPG/RPGnow thing, but considering the newfound pervasiveness of this setting and its supplementary products, and the uniqueness of its system, shouldn't the "Shadow of the Demon Lord" Rule System have its own tag(s) by now? I don't know how to address this myself in any other way, but I think it would be useful, and fitting, for this material.

Konstantinos PDecember 18, 2016 5:51 pm UTC

I'm bit confused! While most of Sotdl books are available as POD, the core is not! I know that we have the option to buy form the official site but shipping costs are out of the question. Will we ever see the day of a simple POD?

Luke WDecember 18, 2016 6:05 pm UTC

PURCHASER

See the comment right below this one :)

Matthew KDecember 18, 2016 6:43 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Indeed, as mentioned in the previous comment, there should be options to buy from UK / European retailers, with minimum shipping costs to Europe (assuming that's where you live?).

Matteo TSeptember 29, 2016 1:28 pm UTC

There will be POD version/option?
Where I live obtain the traditional paper version is no longer an option.

Luke WSeptember 29, 2016 5:13 pm UTC

PURCHASER

There isn't at the moment. But you can order a print version from Sxhwalb Entertainment direct that should be able to be delivered to anywhere DTRPG can deliver their POD books.

Matteo TSeptember 30, 2016 6:14 am UTC

Yes, I saw that. But shipping costing more than the book is, as I've said, not an option :/

Luke WSeptember 30, 2016 9:00 am UTC

PURCHASER

There will be other options out there. Where have you looked? https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Demon-SDL1000-Robert-Schwalb/dp/1495168867/

The other benefit is the book will be quite a bit cheaper (by $10-20 IME) than a colour POD here, so maybe the shipping cost washes out somewhat.

Matthew KSeptember 30, 2016 9:04 am UTC

PURCHASER

Where do you live?

Luke WSeptember 30, 2016 9:22 am UTC

PURCHASER

New Zealand. The land where shipping costs are often greater than the product :)

Matteo TSeptember 30, 2016 10:04 am UTC

On Schwalb site the book is at $49 and the shipping to Italy is at $49. No convenience at all.
Amazon list it at €110 plus shipping cost from US. (We can buy only from Amazon.it)
maybe ebay...

Matteo TSeptember 30, 2016 10:05 am UTC

Italy.

Matthew KSeptember 30, 2016 11:53 am UTC

PURCHASER

You can buy it at Ludarati (UK store) and looks like they'll ship it to Italy for only £5. £43 in total (about €50).

It would be nice to have a bundle of the supplements and a bundle of the adventures at a small discount. I am planning to get all of them eventually but if there is a small savings by buying them all at one go that would be an easy decision.

Charles MMay 19, 2016 5:33 pm UTC

PURCHASER

I've played the game a few times and enjoyed it enough to pick up a copy.

The PDF isn't bad, but it's still is just an electronic version of the book. The two column layout may work for the paper version, but it kind-of sucks electronically. Viewing on a smartphone (or even mid sized tablet) is a squinty affair that results in lots of zooming and panning.

And while there is a table of contents, there are no hyperlinks. The page numbers of the text index do correspond to the page numbers in the doc, but hyperlinks would have been better.

Also a spell index would have been nice too. The spells are organized by magical tradition rather than alphabetically - which makes it a pain to look up a spell when you don't know what tradition it's from.

Charles MMay 19, 2016 11:39 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Correction: The index is hyperlinked. The PDF reader on my PC does not recognize the links. The one on my tablet does.

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